Not that I don't have fun on Saturdays but I'm sick of always canceling our plans. So this past weekend, Doug and I decided it was finally gonna happen and we made good on it.
On Saturday, I met him in Danshui and we went to Eddy's Cantina for the best Mexican food in Formosa (that's Taiwan btw). After chatting with Eddy for a bit and enjoying the delicious food and Joe's awesome margarita's, we headed to the bowling alley. We had a few beers and played a few games. The rust of not playing since I can't remember definitely showed in game 1 as I barely broke 100. But by game 2, my hours spent in the intramural league at Benet Academy were shining brightly as I surpassed 150. Katz and Vaughan would be proud. We called it a night, I took the MRT home, and I was in bed by 1:00.
The next morning, we started our journey to one of the places I've been trying to go for months...Wulai. Wulai is an aboriginal village an hour south of Taipei that is supposed to be fun and pretty for various reasons.
I met Doug, his girlfriend Joyce, and Sharon (a Chicago friend who has since moved to Taiwan. A familiar face! Very cool indeed.) at the Xindian station at the end of the MRT. We decided to cab it over bus it and 30 minutes later we were in Wulai.
We walked around the shops on Old Street for a bit and were introduced to xiaomi jiu which is a wine made from millet (like a smaller rice). The shops had all kinds of varieties and were more than happy to give samples to win your business. The stuff wasn't very strong but you could probably get drunk for free if you played your cards right with the shopkeepers. We found one that was like a champagne wine that we all agreed was our favorite and we all bought bottles before we left.
After the shops, we started walking to the Wulai PuBu (Wulai Waterfall). This is the main reason I wanted to come here and it did not disappoint. The walk had great scenery of green mountainsides and the waterfall itself was awesome.
We hung out there for a while and then started our walk to another waterfall. About halfway there though we got caught up in the idea of river tracing. We found the best place we could to head down to the river and we had a blast climbing on the rocks and walking/swimming in the river. We had so much fun that it starting getting dark and we never made it to the second waterfall. Next time.
We went back to the village and got a proper aboriginal meal that included mountain vegetables (delicious) and zhutong fan (sticky rice in bamboo tubes, also quite delicious). Randomly, we also had ostrich. Quite tasty. Much closer to beef than chicken which surprised me.
After stuffing our faces and drinking a bottle of xiaomi jiu, we headed to an outdoor hot springs spa where we relaxed and had more xiaomi jiu. The hot springs were just ok until we noticed that they had a fish pond. Basically, its a small pool full of small fish (they look like goldfish but not sure if that's what they are) and you put your feet in. The fish eat the dead cells off your feet and ankles and it's supposed to be very therapeutic.
We couldn't refuse the opportunity and paid the extra money to have fish eat our feet. That last sentence is awesome btw. I couldn't stop laughing for the first few minutes cause of the ridiculousness of what we were doing and it really tickled. After a bit, you got used to it and we were just laughing at the ridiculousness. I don't think I've ever taken a picture of my feet or anyone else's.
Only in Asia.
All in all, a fantastic day-trip. I think we're going to have these more often as a trip to Jiufen on the northeast coast is already in the works. Stay tuned...
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